1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to systems and methods for cementing in a portion of a production liner to provide a wellbore completion, cleaning excess cement from the liner and other components, and thereafter producing hydrocarbons from the wellbore completion. In further aspects, the invention relates to systems for gas lift of hydrocarbons from a well.
2. Description of the Related Art
After a well is drilled, cased, and perforated, it is necessary to anchor a production liner into the wellbore and, thereafter, to begin production of hydrocarbons. Oftentimes, it is desired to anchor the production liner into place using cement. Unfortunately, cementing a production liner into place within a wellbore has been seen as foreclosing the possibility of using gas lift technology to increase or extend production from the well in a later stage. Cementing the production liner into place prevents the production liner from being withdrawn from the well. Because a completion becomes permanent when cemented, any gas lift mandrels that are to be used will have to be run in with the production string originally. This is problematic, though, since the operation of cementing the production liner into the wellbore tends to leave the gas inlets of a gas lift mandrel clogged with cement and thereafter unusable.
To the inventors' knowledge, there is no known method or system that permits a completion to be cemented into place and, thereafter, to effectively use gas lift technology to assist removal of hydrocarbons in only a single trip into the wellbore.
The present invention addresses the problems of the prior art.